New Site Design Feedback

"I think the people who don't like it are a small and very vocal minority. I am not sure 75% is accurate. It may seem that way because of all the negativity on the forums, but I wouldn't be suprised if there were only 1000 or so unique members complaining on the forums over the last couple days. Out of 5 million members, that's not too bad."

You really think 5 million inactive members not saying anything is indicative of "the majority likes it?"

There is a well known principle that happy customers tell few and unhappy customers tell everyone. There is very little motivation for a happy chess.com user to take up the cause for the new layout, when a. it's not changing and b. these threads are filled with hostility. So i think using forum polls to gauge that 75% of chess.com user are unhappy is inaccurate.

Out of 5 million, a maximum of 20000 would have logged in since yesterday. I can bet my head on that. And not everyone on this site knows how to use a forum etc. Even if you see generally, there are only about 5000 - 10000 members who even write a comment in a forum thread or start a forum.

Hi, I am having trouble using the analysis board. For some reason the window does not have a scroll bar and even when I maximize the window it still isn't big enough to reach the buttons that let you undo moves. I tried both iexplorer 9 64 bit and firefox Namoroka 64 bit but i had the same problem. Anybody have a suggestion on how to fix?

A workaround would be to copy the URL from the Address bar, and then open it a new tab in the main browser window. Also, in Account - Online Chess Settings, try setting the board size to Tiny, and also in your browser, zoom out a few times. The move text becomes so small you won't be able to read it anymore, but at least you'll be able to see the buttons.

Out of 5 million, a maximum of 20000 would have logged in since yesterday. I can bet my head on that. And not everyone on this site knows how to use a forum etc. Even if you see generally, there are only about 5000 - 10000 members who even write a comment in a forum thread or start a forum.

Hi, I am having trouble using the analysis board. For some reason the window does not have a scroll bar and even when I maximize the window it still isn't big enough to reach the buttons that let you undo moves. I tried both iexplorer 9 64 bit and firefox Namoroka 64 bit but i had the same problem. Anybody have a suggestion on how to fix?

A workaround would be to copy the URL from the Address bar, and then open it a new tab in the main browser window. Also, in Account - Online Chess Settings, try setting the board size to Tiny, and also in your browser, zoom out a few times. The move text becomes so small you won't be able to read it anymore, but at least you'll be able to see the buttons.

Out of 5 million, a maximum of 20000 would have logged in since yesterday. I can bet my head on that. And not everyone on this site knows how to use a forum etc. Even if you see generally, there are only about 5000 - 10000 members who even write a comment in a forum thread or start a forum.

Can you cite where these statistics came from?

Well, that too isn't possible with this new design.

In the old design, when you go to chess.com/members, you had an option to view members by 'most recently online' and you can see that as you scroll across the pages you will see the members who logged in most recently the first. Each page had 10 entries and you could view 100 pages. If you go to the 100th page, you could see that the last login time of the 10th player in the 100th page would be always more than 1 hour ago. meaning that around 1000 login in an hour.

And regarding forums, its a generalistic opinion with the experience of more than 2 years in chess.com's forums.

"I think the people who don't like it are a small and very vocal minority. I am not sure 75% is accurate. It may seem that way because of all the negativity on the forums, but I wouldn't be suprised if there were only 1000 or so unique members complaining on the forums over the last couple days. Out of 5 million members, that's not too bad."

You really think 5 million inactive members not saying anything is indicative of "the majority likes it?"

There is a well known principle that happy customers tell few and unhappy customers tell everyone. There is very little motivation for a happy chess.com user to take up the cause for the new layout, when a. it's not changing and b. these threads are filled with hostility. So i think using forum polls to gauge that 75% of chess.com user are unhappy is inaccurate.

I never said 75% of users are unhappy. And while what you say is generally true, it doesn't apply to people complaining that as a fact, the site doesn't work for them anymore. Don't fixate on the layout issue. That's just one of the complaints. A vast majority who have begun trying to use the site are finding it is simply broken when before it wasn't.

If you believe that most of the people are happy, then it would be unlikely that so many paying members would be cancelling their membership.

"I think the people who don't like it are a small and very vocal minority. I am not sure 75% is accurate. It may seem that way because of all the negativity on the forums, but I wouldn't be suprised if there were only 1000 or so unique members complaining on the forums over the last couple days. Out of 5 million members, that's not too bad."

You really think 5 million inactive members not saying anything is indicative of "the majority likes it?"

There is a well known principle that happy customers tell few and unhappy customers tell everyone. There is very little motivation for a happy chess.com user to take up the cause for the new layout, when a. it's not changing and b. these threads are filled with hostility. So i think using forum polls to gauge that 75% of chess.com user are unhappy is inaccurate.

I never said 75% of users are unhappy. And while what you say is generally true, it doesn't apply to people complaining that as a fact, the site doesn't work for them anymore. Don't fixate on the layout issue. That's just one of the complaints. A vast majority who have begun trying to use the site are finding it is simply broken when before it wasn't.

If you believe that most of the people are happy, then it would be unlikely that so many paying members would be cancelling their membership.

"I think the people who don't like it are a small and very vocal minority. I am not sure 75% is accurate. It may seem that way because of all the negativity on the forums, but I wouldn't be suprised if there were only 1000 or so unique members complaining on the forums over the last couple days. Out of 5 million members, that's not too bad."

You really think 5 million inactive members not saying anything is indicative of "the majority likes it?"

There is a well known principle that happy customers tell few and unhappy customers tell everyone. There is very little motivation for a happy chess.com user to take up the cause for the new layout, when a. it's not changing and b. these threads are filled with hostility. So i think using forum polls to gauge that 75% of chess.com user are unhappy is inaccurate.

I never said 75% of users are unhappy. And while what you say is generally true, it doesn't apply to people complaining that as a fact, the site doesn't work for them anymore. Don't fixate on the layout issue. That's just one of the complaints. A vast majority who have begun trying to use the site are finding it is simply broken when before it wasn't.

If you believe that most of the people are happy, then it would be unlikely that so many paying members would be cancelling their membership.

The 75% number came from another conversation that you quoted. I am not fixated on the new layout. I am fixated on the people ready to jump ship after less then 48 hours when Erik and chess.com have demonstrated that they are working around the clock to fix all of the issues. Chess.com did it's due diligence in beta, but bugs will persist no matter what. I have been testing this new layout for over a month and have had zero issues with it. My Iphone, Ipad and android tablet all run the app perfectly. The website works fine with google chrome (the preffered browser of chess.com). I do understand that I do not use every feature of chess.com and there are bugs in other areas that I do not reguraly use, but you have to give chess.com a hand for promptly fixing most of these bugs in less then 24 hours.

I never said 75% of users are unhappy. And while what you say is generally true, it doesn't apply to people complaining that as a fact, the site doesn't work for them anymore. Don't fixate on the layout issue. That's just one of the complaints. A vast majority who have begun trying to use the site are finding it is simply broken when before it wasn't.

If you believe that most of the people are happy, then it would be unlikely that so many paying members would be cancelling their membership.

The 75% number came from another conversation that you quoted. I am not fixated on the new layout. I am fixated on the people ready to jump ship after less then 48 hours when Erik and chess.com have demonstrated that they are working around the clock to fix all of the issues. Chess.com did it's due diligence in beta, but bugs will persist no matter what. I have been testing this new layout for over a month and have had zero issues with it. My Iphone, Ipad and android tablet all run the app perfectly. The website works fine with google chrome (the preffered browser of chess.com). I do understand that I do not use every feature of chess.com and there are bugs in other areas that I do not reguraly use, but you have to give chess.com a hand for promptly fixing most of these bugs in less then 24 hours.

You have to realize ... this is just a chess site. Some people may only play chess on it, shockingly. The major reason they may have gotten a subscription was because they liked the layout, for example. It's been made very clear that there will be no going back under any circumstance. For a lot of people, the only thing they want is the option to use the old format they like. And as I said before somewhere, people know what they like and don't like. For example I don't like Chrome. If I have to use that for this site to work, then forget it. It's just a chess site. I'm not a world champion player. It's an idle hobby.

Many see this as another FB site now. And they know they don't like that. So what reason do they have for staying?

I'm not sure why everything works perfectly for you. And how do you figure that most bugs (that you can't even have) have been fixed in 24 hours? I've seen only one change of what I use. The background was fixed. That's it. Everything else that I've used is the same as it was when they first launched this new layout.

Also no effort is being made to create a layout that resembles what the site used to look like, nor will they bother. I don't think it's an overreaction to leave something you don't like. I think it was a huge mistake to suddenly force a new layout on everyone without any good reason or even a heads up before hand.

One reason members are so upset is that chess.com was like a second home, a place where we go for some quiet time every day, sometimes for 3 or 4 (or more) hours per day. Now, with the changes, our second home has suddenly gone and been replaced by a strange and unfamiliar one. Moving house is considered to be a very stessful experience, and that it takes over 6 weeks to sart to feel comfortable with the new abode. Let's hope so.

I'm getting used to the new site design. I am the type of person who generally likes things the way they have been. But I am also glad I gave up my rotary dial wall phone and my hotmail account along the way. Change -- good, bad, otherwise -- is inevitable. It seems like Erik and the staff are working hard to make this site work for folks. I'm thankful that they have put their talents into building this, instead of, say, a hedge fund or something. I really appreciate Chess.com.

When are you going to fix the Privacy issue??? We should be able to set the Privacy levels for everything. I don't necessarily need/want everyone to see my friends list, tactics/mentor ratings. What business is it of anyone else? Once again, this is supposed to be a CHESS site, not a FACEBOOK wannabe SOCIAL website!!!!

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